


Child of the TARDIS

by penguinspy42



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-27
Updated: 2012-09-27
Packaged: 2017-11-15 04:27:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/523136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penguinspy42/pseuds/penguinspy42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She knew everything about the Doctor, but who was River Song?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Child of the TARDIS

**Author's Note:**

> This was written last year shortly after LKH aired as an insert speculating what may have happened with River and the TARDIS.

“Just...” the Doctor growled in frustration as he laid on the steps, unable to summon the strength to pull himself any closer to his beloved blue box. “Help me.”

“How do you even still care about them when you’re nearly dead?” the woman behind him asked incredulously.

“You… their child. Child of the TARDIS. Please, help.” He reached weakly toward the TARDIS and only just summoned the strength to snap his fingers. The doors obediently opened to the sound, albeit slowly, as if the TARDIS was concerned.

“Free reign to all of time and space? A girl could have some fun with this,” she commented with a naughty smirk. She walked past the Doctor paying him no mind and went straight to the TARDIS.

“River, no… remember… you have to—” But his words were cut off as she closed the door behind her.

“Smoke’s gone, that’s good.” She walked up to the console and noticed the bullet hole was gone as well. “Hm, that’s odd,” she mused. With a slight frown, she leaned across the cluttered console and placed her hand flat against its center column. As soon as her flesh met the slender cylindrical form, unfamiliar emotions, thoughts, and memories eclipsed her mind and she yanked her hand back as if she had touched something scalding. Hesitantly, she placed a single finger against the transparent material where the bullet hole once was.

“You… you’re alive,” she gasped. “You _healed_ yourself.” She strolled around the console, examining it up and down from the jumble of controls to the clear cylinder that rose to the ceiling. “You know everything about the Doctor, yeah? Then tell me, who is River Song?”

A warmth, filled with something like joy spread through her, wrapping around her like a blanket smothering the negative feelings she always carried.

“Oh, I get it. You’re River.” She felt a negative response. “No? Then who is she?”

Nothing.

“Alright, you don’t want to talk about her. What do you want to talk about?”

Flashes of many different people, many faces, flipped through her mind, yet somehow all seemed the same. A long scarf, a stalk of celery, dark hair on one, ginger on another. There were a couple women thrown in as well. She lost count as well over a dozen figures raced through her mind, until finally it came to rest on the image of the Doctor’s eleventh regeneration.

“The Doctor? You want to talk about the Doctor? Oh, honey, I’ve been drilled on every little fact about that man. What could you possibly tell me that I don’t know?”

A vastness filled her mind at her question. “You think there’s a good bit? Well, start at the beginning then.”

Glimpses of his childhood overtook her thoughts, none complete but stories retold from his memories. An outcast, obviously, who just wanted to get away from everything he thought was wrong and to discover things for himself. The memories continued in this fashion right up until the Doctor stepped into the TARDIS for the first time and took off to see the universe.

“Hah! He stole you? I guess he and I may have something in common after all.”

The TARDIS carried on, now with more complete details and images, faithfully imparting her history with the Doctor. The Daleks, the Master, the fall of Gallifrey, the faces of companions he loved so much, she sat by the console as all these incredible stories were fed directly into her brain. All the stories, every single one, led back to the Doctor. She could feel his desire to make the universe a better place, but she could also feel his deep-rooted sense of failure and loneliness. The information rushed through her like water, cleansing away the half-truths and misinformation that had been drilled into her over a lifetime. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, it could have been minutes or hours or days, but what was time to a TARDIS?

As the recent images of the TARDIS in the cornfield faded from her mind, she scooted back from the console and looked up at it, feeling emotionally exhausted but somehow more whole than she’d ever felt in her life. “You’ve told me everything except the one thing I want to know. Who is River Song? Tell me who she is.”

Instead of an answer, she was shown the Doctor again and conflicting emotions swelled within her. Resentment toward an inevitable future that grew to be desired, a mystery that was solved in joy only to be replaced by the torment of having to betray the faith of a dear friend. None of it, though, matched the sense of love and trust rivaled only by that which he held for the TARDIS.

“No, I know who she is to him,” she shook her head, partially in protest and partially because there was something at the back of her head telling her she already knew the answer. “Tell me who she is.”

Silence. Then the words were imprinted in her mind. Not spoken, just there.

_The only water in the forest is the river._

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Something stirred inside her, starting small like a seed but growing. It was foreign to her. Sure, she recognized it as love, but it was a deep, protecting love. A motherly love, she finally realized. Suddenly, she remembered Amy and Rory, though she wasn’t sure if the thought came from within herself or from the TARDIS. She jumped up and without thinking about it pulled a lever on the console, then pushed a button. As she raced around the console, time energy crackled from the console to her hands, twining up her newly-regenerated skin like invisible ivy. The TARDIS was guiding her—teaching her—she realized. What seemed to be a random jumble of buttons and levers just moments before suddenly made perfect sense. When the TARDIS began to materialize at its destination, she ducked behind the console, unsure of what Amy and Rory’s reaction would be.

“Doctor? Doctor, you did it! You did it!”

She hesitantly stepped out from behind the console when she heard Amy’s voice. “I seem to be able to fly her,” she explained timidly, glancing up and down the time rotor. “Sh—she showed me how. She taught me. The Doctor says I'm the child of the TARDIS. What does he mean?”

Amy and Rory just looked at each other but she had a feeling she already knew what the answer would be.

Spoilers.


End file.
